The number and type of network services used has increased over the years. Network service providers have to streamline network management and processes, bring new services online quickly and deliver consistently high quality of service in order to reduce operating costs and attract and retain customers. Support systems (test systems) can help achieve these objectives.
A number of the presently used networks, such as but not limited to, mobile (cell phone) networks, dial-up services for home Internet access, include devices that are not continuously in operation (hereinafter called intermittently operated devices). Before intermittently operated devices, such as, but not limited to, cell phones or modems, can be tested they have to be powered up, initialized in the correct state, and registered with the target system (for example, a wireless network) being tested for the test to perform as expected. A similar process has to be followed when the test of the intermittently operated device is completed. The intermittently operated device used to be released (for example disconnected, then registered and powered off) in a systematic way. The setup and release processes have to be repeated for every device under test.
The setup and release processes for an intermittently operated device consume a significant amount of time compared to the test time. Repeating the setup and release process adds a very significant amount of overhead to the test. Since system resources, such as hardware devices and wireless connections, are typically in scarce supply, such an overhead represents a significant waste of available resources.
A variety of test software/hardware products can be used to test wireless or wired line networks including intermittently operated devices. The available test software/hardware products address the testing overhead problem in several different approaches.
Some available test products perform the setup process on the device the first time any test requires it and then retain a device in the state obtained through the setup process. This approach requires that the device manager component of the test product continuously monitor the device performance between tests and perform periodic maintenance on the device to keep the device stable. This approach also requires each test system implementation to be tailored to the type of network being tested and does not allow each test to be individually configured. Since the stability of devices varies significantly for different technologies and for the type of test being performed, this approach requires more software tasks or tailoring of software.
Other available test products include the setup and release process in every test is performed. This approach results in significant overhead.
There is therefore a need to provide the capability to perform tests on intermittently operated devices in a more efficient manner.